This book makes an excellent attempt to clearly explain a topic that is conceptually difficult, mathematically obscure (and potentially difficult...) and fraught with pitfalls that have trapped many, many unwary but enthusiastic scientists. The early chapters build on each other logically and provide a usable entry into the field and its practicalities. The later "advanced topics" represent a significant jump in difficulty, requiring a wide range of mathematical techniques that are assumed rather than explained, and are really only a good jumping off point into the wider literature on some really esoteric subjects...